MAN LIKE GOD
BUT NOT GOD
Then God said, "Let Us make man (
adam)
in Our image (
tselem;
see note),
according to Our likeness (
demut)
- Let Us make is in the
jussive signifying a command. Many take the
us to be God speaking of Himself (and speaks of plurality within unity) and thus hinting at the
Trinity (cf Ge 3:22
+, Ge 11:7), but should not be used as dogmatic proof of the Trinity. A better passage would be 2Cor 13:14
+ where Paul describes "The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit, be with you all."
Man the crown of creation is the Hebrew word
adam; probably so called either from the red earth of which he was formed, or from the blush or flesh-tint of the human countenance: the name is intended to designate the species. The idea of "
in" the image of God means "in essence as."
Man refers not just to Adam but to mankind in general and this is substantiated by the fact that in Hebrew
man is in the plural form and in Ge 1:27 God identifies both male and female as
man.
MacArthur -
Our image. This defined man's unique relation to God. Man is a living being capable of embodying God's communicable attributes (cf. Ge 9:6; Ro 8:29; Col 3:10; Jas 3:9). In his rational life, he was like God in that he could reason and had intellect, will, and emotion. In the moral sense, he was like God because he was good and sinless. (See context in
MacArthur Study Bible)
Henry Lazenby on
image - "The image is found in the type of relationship that was designed to exist between male and female human beings, a relationship where the characteristics of each sex are valued and used to form a oneness in their identity and purpose. When God created human beings as male and female he formed them to exhibit a oneness in their relationship that would resemble the relationship of God and his heavenly court. "By ruling as one, male and female fulfill the purpose of God for which they were created. United as one humanity, male and female are one with God and his heavenly court. And it is this unity between male and female, and between humanity and God, that is destroyed in the Fall described in Genesis 3." (
The Image of God: Masculine, Feminine, or Neuter?" JETS 30:1, 1987)
Henry Morris on
let us - God is, as it were, taking counsel here with Himself,
not with angels, since man was to be made in the image of God, not of angels. "Our image," therefore, implies human likeness to the triune Godhead. Plants possess a body and animals possess a body and consciousness; man was not only to have a body (of the created "earth") and a consciousness (of the created "soul"), but man was also to possess a third created entity, the image of God, an eternal spirit capable of communion and fellowship with his Creator. (Borrow the
The defender's study Bible)
Thomas Constable - "
Image" and "
likeness" are essentially synonymous terms. Both indicate personality, moral, and spiritual qualities that God and man share (i.e., self-consciousness, God-consciousness, freedom, responsibility, speech, moral discernment, etc.) These distinguish humans from the animals. Some writers have called the image of God man's "spiritual personality." (
Genesis 1)